Regional Evaluation Officer, P4 (multiple locations)

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WFP seeks candidates of the highest integrity and professionalism who share our humanitarian principles.

Selection of staff is made on a competitive basis, and we are committed to promoting diversity and gender balance.

Are you an Evaluation Officer interested in further developing your professional experience while contributing to ending global hunger? Would you like to join WFP, a highly reputable organisation bringing positive change to lives of people affected by hardships? Would you like to join a global organisation investing in its people?

If your answer is yes, then this is a great opportunity for you to become an integral member of a diverse and passionate team that works on varied and international projects directly contributing to beneficiary assistance.

ABOUT WFP

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. The mission of WFP is to help the world achieve Zero Hunger in our lifetimes. With more than 18,000 colleagues worldwide, WFP works to ensure that no child goes to bed hungry and that the poorest and most vulnerable, particularly women and children, can access the nutritious food they need.

Why WFP?

• WFP assists more than 86 million people around 83 countries. Your work will have a positive impact on lives of the world’s most vulnerable people
• You will join a diverse team of professionals and will have a chance to exchange your experience with your colleagues
• WFP invests in the training and development of its employees through a range of training, accreditation, mentorship and other programs as well as through internal mobility opportunities
• Our team is growing internationally and the timing to join us cannot be better!
• We offer attractive compensation package (please refer to Terms and Conditions section)

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

The evaluation function plays a key role in strengthening WFP’s contribution to ending global hunger. As outlined in WFP Evaluation Policy, the Evaluation Function aims to embed evaluation into the heart of an organizational culture of accountability and learning, ensuring that evaluation is planned for, and evaluation findings are comprehensively incorporated into all WFP’s policies, strategies and programmes. Evaluations provide WFP decision-makers and all stakeholders with independent assessment of results for accountability and learning and enable WFP to better respond to the needs and expectations of the populations it serves.

The evaluation function is an integral, complementary yet distinct element of WFP’s oversight and performance management system. To respond to its Strategic Plan commitments and related organizational strengthening initiatives, WFP adopted a model for its evaluation function, which combines centralized evaluation with demand-led decentralized evaluation. This model requires a strongly integrated function across WFP.

We are seeking to fill the Regional Evaluation Officer, at the P4 level, to be based in WFP Regional Bureau in Panama covering Latin American and Caribbean. This is a specialist position and requires a high level of evaluation expertise. Equivalent positions in other WFP Regional Bureaux may be filled through this selection process.

JOB PURPOSE

This position will support the Regional Director and regional and country office colleagues in meeting their responsibilities and accountabilities under the Evaluation Policy. The Regional Evaluation Officer will be expected to lead the development and implementation of the regional evaluation strategy; and will provide technical advice, quality support and coaching on evaluation across the Region, ensuring consistent application of the Evaluation Policy. Collaborating closely with WFP’s complementary monitoring function, the job holder will provide guidance and support to CO Monitoring & Evaluation Officers, or focal points across the region.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

Key Responsibilities

Reporting to the Regional Director or Deputy Regional Director, and functionally to the Director of Evaluation, the Regional Evaluation Officer will be responsible for the following key accountabilities:

Strategic direction

• Develop and implement a regional evaluation strategy in line with WFP Evaluation Policy and Corporate Evaluation Strategy. Engage with the Regional Monitoring Adviser to ensure complementarity with regional monitoring strategies.
• Act as Secretariat to the Regional Evaluation Committee.
• Develop and regularly update the Regional Evaluation Plan tailored to regional learning needs and priorities and meeting WFP Evaluation Policy coverage norms; engage with Country Offices (COs), Regional Advisers and the Office of Evaluation (OEV) to identify key evidence gaps, define regional priorities for generating evidence and ensure complementarity planning of centralized and decentralized evaluations.
• Lead the Regional Evaluation Unit, developing an annual workplan, monitoring its budget and managing junior staff members, providing coaching and guidance as required to ensure appropriate development and enable high performance.

Technical support and oversight

• Support Regional Bureau (RB) and Country Office (CO) Management to ensure at regional and country levels a consistent application of the Evaluation Policy provisions and normative framework, including appropriate evaluation planning, budgeting and resourcing, safeguarding impartiality and quality standards of decentralized evaluations. • Provide direct support/advice to Country Offices commissioning decentralized evaluations to support adherence to the Decentralized Evaluation Quality Assurance System (DEQAS). This includes ensuring appropriate use of corporate DE support mechanisms managed by OEV; resolving arising issues and seeking further advice from OEV when required. • Assess the evaluability of Country Strategic Plans. • Support Country Offices and regional colleagues in accessing appropriate evaluation expertise for decentralized evaluations and proactively identify qualified evaluation service in the region. • Advise and support COs that have adequately budgeted for a decentralized evaluation but face genuine funding shortfalls on modalities for accessing the Contingency Evaluation Fund. • Manage multi-country or regional decentralized evaluations to high professional standards, as well as country-led decentralized evaluations when all other evaluation management options are unavailable. • Ensure that all decentralized evaluation reports are published on WFP websites. • Provide timely updates on decentralized evaluations across the region in the Evaluation Management Information System (MIS); monitor and report on key performance indicators for the decentralized evaluation function. • Provide inputs to OEV on corporate reports such as the annual evaluation report. • Support country offices on any other evaluation-related issues.

Evaluation Capacity and Staffing

• Contribute to the strengthening of evaluation staffing capacity across the region. • Facilitate evaluation capacity development initiatives in line with WFP corporate Evaluation Capacity Development strategy, coaching CO Evaluation Managers, establishing a regional community of practice to facilitate peer learning; organizing in collaboration with the RMA, regional M&E workshops, country office level training tailored to regional/country-specific learning needs, or facilitating access to external evaluation training courses or events.

Partnerships

• Support commissioning and management of joint evaluations at country and regional levels. • Lead or co-lead in partnership with other UN agencies on National evaluation capacity development efforts at country and regional levels. • Establish regional partnerships with UN agencies and other regional partners including regional and national evaluation associations. • Cooperate with the Regional Monitoring and Evaluation units of other UN agencies to establish systems and processes that allow for effective and efficient commissioning and management of UNSDCF evaluations and system-wide evaluations that support delivery of the 2030 Agenda.

Evaluation use and Advocacy

• Promote WFP’s evaluation culture of accountability and learning and working with internal and external stakeholders to enhance learning from and use of evaluation. • Ensure that evaluation results are widely disseminated through the development of innovative learning products, the analysis and consolidation of evaluative evidence into country or regional thematic evidence summaries. • Review draft Country Strategic Plans and regional strategies and advise on the extent to which they are grounded on and informed by evaluation evidence. • Organize learning events in partnership with other Regional Advisers, and contribute to the Global Evaluation Meeting. • Actively participate to WFP evaluation Community of Practice and foster engagement from CO M&E staff. • Take responsibility for incorporating gender perspectives in all areas of work, to ensure equal participation of women and men. • Other duties as required.

FUNCTIONAL CAPABILITIES

Capability Name Description of the behaviour expected for the proficiency level Strategic Management Utilizes up-to-date understanding of humanitarian and development actions in different contexts and knowledge of global geo-political issues, monitoring requirements and/or the evaluation mandate to enhance existing approaches, systems and processes to monitoring and/or evaluation that suit WFP’s strategic and operational needs. Performance Management Demonstrates thorough understanding of WFP’s performance management system and ability to manage resources and relationships to lead monitoring actions or deliver complex evaluations (including joint & interagency) of a variety of WFP programmes, processes or policies to WFP monitoring and/or evaluation quality standards. Qualitative/****Quantitative Methodology Oversees and provides guidance to others in the selection and application of high quality, credible, analytical approaches and qualitative and quantitative methods appropriate to monitoring and review requirements and/or evaluation needs across WFP at different levels. Technical Communication Able to tailor and synthesize evaluation evidence and engage diverse internal and external stakeholders proactively in appropriate ways to maximize learning and use of evaluation concepts and evidence for improving WFP programme performance. Analysis Demonstrates advanced skills in listening, influencing and interpreting evaluation evidence, management information, partner relationships, and the wider geopolitical and policy environment to ensure the delivery of independent, credible and useful evaluations to improve WFP’s performance.

QUALIFICATIONS & KEY REQUIREMENTS

• Advanced University degree in International Development, Economics, Social Science, or other relevant fields, OR first University degree with two additional years of relevant work experience from the minimum experience requirement stated below
• Eight (8) years or more (of which at least four (4) are international) of postgraduate professional experience both in the field and in Headquarters in international development or humanitarian work, evaluation and monitoring or assessment and/or policy studies with progressively increasing responsibilities.
• Minimum five (5) years’ experience in managing and/or conducting broad and complex evaluations in areas of relevance to WFP.
• Design and implementation of monitoring and evaluation systems to improve efficiency and effectiveness of humanitarian assistance and development cooperation.
• Proven experience in working with multi-disciplinary teams.
• Familiarity with the region applied for or in similar contexts.

LANGUAGES:

Fluency in oral and written English with an intermediate knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish) or Portuguese (one of WFP’s working languages) is required for all international professional positions with WFP.

Given this role is based in Panama, fluency in Spanish is required for this specific position. If you are fluent in French or Arabic, you are also highly encouraged to apply as other similar regional positions may be filled through this recruitment process.

TECHNICAL SKILLS & KNOWLEDGE

• Strategic Management: Has in-depth knowledge of humanitarian and development actions, global geo-political issues and UN Reform, and applies it to enhance monitoring and evaluation functions that supports WFP’s strategic objectives. Is able to demonstrate to stakeholders the value of monitoring and evaluation for policy and programming in the achievements of the SDGs.
• Performance Management: Has strong performance management cycle skills, and solid knowledge of international norms and standards for evaluation; understands the value of Theory of Change (ToC).
• Methodology, Approaches and Analysis: Has solid knowledge of qualitative and quantitative methods and analytical approaches in order to oversee and guide others in the selection and application of those to WFP monitoring, review and evaluation exercises. Is able to validate data quality and ensure that data collection and analysis have been conducted ethically.
• Communication & Use: Demonstrates active listening, communication and conflict resolution skills to promote constructive engagement of stakeholders and communicate effectively key evidence.
• Ethics: Understands the specific implications of ethics in monitoring, review and evaluation activities; Demonstrates ethical behavior at all times and is able to consistently ensure that appropriate actions are taken to safeguard ethics.
• Experience building strategic partnerships in M&E with multiple stakeholders, including governments, multilateral, bilateral and academia will be an asset.

DESIRED SKILLS

• Familiarity with WFP’s work would be a desirable asset, but is not required.
• For the position based in Regional Bureau Panama – Latin America and the Caribbean, experience in middle-income countries is highly desirable.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Mobility is, and continues to be, a core contractual requirement in WFP. The selected candidate will be employed on a Fixed-Term contract with a probationary period of one year.

WFP offers an attractive compensation and benefits package including basic salary, post adjustment, relocation entitlement, travel and shipment allowances, 30 days’ annual leave, home leave, an education grant for dependent children, pension plan and medical insurance. For more details, please visit icsc.un.org.

Qualified female applicants and qualified applicants from Low- and Middle-Income countries are especially encouraged to apply.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

Deadline to receive applications is Sunday, 13 December 2020, 11.59pm (CET)

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Female applicants and qualified applicants from developing countries are especially encouraged to apply

WFP has zero tolerance for discrimination and does not discriminate on the basis of HIV/AIDS status.

No appointment under any kind of contract will be offered to members of the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), FAO Finance Committee, WFP External Auditor, WFP Audit Committee, Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) and other similar bodies within the United Nations system with oversight responsibilities over WFP, both during their service and within three years of ceasing that service.